Rarely a month goes by without a new release from Dr David Burraston aka NYZ, yet each one is required listening for seekers of new adventures in audio. His genius not only lies in custom building systems with generative algorithms that embrace chaos, but also in choosing the choicest results for our delectation. Like its neighbouring releases RLD GLD ET AL and NTE GDN, CSR SHAPERZ (on Ge-stell) is yet another mind-expanding exercise in perception.
The file naming conventions of the track titles emphasise the album’s structure of two halves, each with several short ‘shapers’ followed by a longform piece. The ‘shapers’ demonstrate unique electronic timbres in uneven and often frenetic sprays. Their fidgety and discombobulating baptism primes the brain for the lengthy, focussed pieces: ‘CSR3 MONO’, a bristling monolith surging with energy, has your brain finding patterns that may not exist, while ‘CSR34t kzM ENRONMI’, the crown on CSR SHAPERZ’ confused head, closes the album with infectious electro rhythms slowly sinking into moaning synth vapours, as if dredging up a phantom choir.
Along with the erraticism and eccentricity, CSR SHAPERZ’ pieces all share gestural and organic properties, despite their electronic, scientific origins. These qualities make NYZ’s singular synthetics all the more curious, as if evidence of ghosts in his machine.
